Implementation of Geriatric Depression Screening in a Primary Care Setting

Abstract

Depression is characterized by persistently low mood or loss of interest in activities. Depression can cause patients to be unmotivated and have significant functional impairment in their daily lives. According to the World Health Organization (2017), unipolar depression affects about 7% of the general older population. The evidence-based project is aimed to increase the awareness of geriatric depression screening among the health providers and implement geriatric depression screening to improve the standard of geriatric care provided in the primary clinic. A PowerPoint presentation was done on geriatric depression to make the audience aware of the prevalence of geriatric depression and the benefits of geriatric depression screening. A post-presentation survey was done to get feedback from the participants. The PDSA framework was selected for the Quality Improvement project. A data tracking tool was utilized to monitor the progress of data collection over the eight weeks of the implementation period. The post-implementation data showed that 42.9% of geriatric patients with chronic disease conditions were screened for geriatric depression during the implementation period. The project on screening geriatric depression using the GDS-15 screening tool increased patient satisfaction and trust in the quality of geriatric care provided by the primary clinic.